topic Re: A197VP crashes when playing games in PCs & Accessories

A197VP crashes when playing games

Lundmark — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 21:11:03 GMT

I am playing Far Cry on my VAIO and I have experienced occasional crashes. I have installed the Radeon OMEGA drivers and it comes with a utility called VPU Recover that detects crashes from the graphics card.

Apparently, what happens is that my graphic card crashes when I play Far Cry, according to VPU Recover. The game freezes for about half a minute and then an error dialog box is displayed, saying that VPU Recover has reset my graphics card since it crashed.

This is odd since I haven't overclocked it or anything. I am thinking that I might have a defect piece of hardware here. What do you think?

I am however sorry to report that my particular problem does *not* seem to be caused by the OMEGA drivers, nor by Far Cry, but simply by heat. I've come to experienced problems with the original ATi drivers that comes preinstalled when playing games like Command & Conquer: Generals.

After about an hour, the graphics card intends to crash. At this point, the computer is quite hot and restarting the computer and directly relaunching the game makes the computer crash again. It seems it has to cool down before I can play again.

This to me is not OK. It shouldn't crash no matter how I use it - at least not due to hardware or heat. Buggy software is alright, but I hate hardware failures.

So my question is, is my computer defective or is heat a known issue? It has to be fixed somehow cause I really need this machine for playing games and editing video and I haven't paid this much for a luxury computer that bails out on such things as this.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

kee-lo_ — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 21:17:14 GMT

Maybe you should consider getting a laptop cooler if you're going to play high GPU usage games like FarCry.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

TygerTyger — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 21:21:05 GMT

Hm......I'm kinda with Lundmark on this, computers shouldn't just crap out because they have something tough to do. Why don't you try taking it up with Sony support? According to Trading Standards rules (in the UK at least) the computer has to be fit for the purpose for which it was sold. Since yours doesn't do that.......

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

kee-lo_ — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 21:26:48 GMT

I guess so, but I have't really seen many laptops running FarCry without issue.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

TygerTyger — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 21:38:15 GMT

You'll never change the world if you just accept it.

Besides, if it doesn't work it doesn't work. Maybe we should just accept it won't work, but manufacturers should certainly say that intense games won't work or people will get unpleasant surprises like this. Especially since they usually say 'Plays the latest games'.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

jammold — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 22:00:53 GMT

So true TT!:smileygrin:

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

kee-lo_ — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 22:08:08 GMT

Well, we'll see what Sony Support will tell him...

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

Lundmark — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 23:56:07 GMT

I've talked to them and I'm awating a reply. I don't know if there are any Vaio engineers active on this board, but hopefully there is. Such an opinion would be really appreciated.

OK, so I've considered a laptop cooler, but I just don't think it's justificed paying additional money on a thing that the computer shouldn't need. If it gets too hot while busy, engineers should have incorporated better cooling or colder components.

Also, seeing that "old" games like Command & Conquer Generals also crap out doesn't bode well for my precious machine. I didn't buy a monster laptop merely for surfing the web...

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

jammold — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 00:12:54 GMT

Games can stress a PC out though - so a cooler would be handy.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

kee-lo_ — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 01:14:59 GMT

I've talked to them and I'm awating a reply. I don't know if there are any Vaio engineers active on this board, but hopefully there is. Such an opinion would be really appreciated.

Know what you mean, but there are none active around here, which is a shame

Also, seeing that "old" games like Command & Conquer Generals also crap out doesn't bode well for my precious machine. I didn't buy  a monster laptop merely for surfing the web...

Then it definately needs to go back to VAIO Link to be repaired.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

TygerTyger — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 13:44:51 GMT

I'm fraudulently impersonating an engineer does that count? Well I'm glad it will be counted as a fault, although if it does it with all games it's a slightly different issue.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

kee-lo_ — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 13:53:38 GMT

LOL Tyger, at least we're doing our job.....

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

Frankeng — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 19:32:54 GMT

I have the same problem with my A197XP, but not only with games like far cry. The notebook crashes also when i play strategy games like Knights Of Honor or Civilization III. Yes, this isn't right, especially when you pay about 3000 Euro for the machine. I guess this is the last Vaio I ever bought. I had an other one before and it made even more problems. But i hoped, that Sony would produce better notebooks in the meantime.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

jammold — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 19:59:49 GMT

Pity - seems as if VAIO's are not all that great for games - couldn't you try using it for something else?

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

kee-lo_ — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 20:02:39 GMT

Agreed, specially when VAIO Stands for video audio integrated operation!

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

jammold — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 20:29:18 GMT

LOL - Even the logo with the sine wave and I O representing ones and zeros gives a little hint on analogue data such as audio...

Sony will not likely deviate from the audio/visual side to allowing them to flawlessly run games.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

kee-lo_ — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 20:32:14 GMT

Yeah but games are audiovisual, so they should work on that too...

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

jammold — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 20:40:33 GMT

True - other laptops may be better suited to this, or ideally use a desktop for games...

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

kee-lo_ — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 20:43:09 GMT

Yeah, desktops are the best gaming units, as are shuttle cubes.

Re: A197VP crashes when playing games

davidplant — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 15:35:43 GMT

i have the same problem there are 2 main games i run ROME total war and soldiers, it crashes on both of them, the crash isn't a lock up i just get white dots all over the screen and then it crashes saying ati driver error, i contacted vaio about this and they said to re-install all drivers and vaio updates, i did this and it still happened so i went back to vaio and they said it was a 3rd party problem not theres!!!